Riley Wetmore returns to the Gut this weekend for series against UVM

Jan. 10, 2013

Written by

Free Press Correspondent

Riley Wetmore / Courtesy UMass-Lowell

University of Lowell hockey forward Riley Wetmore leads the River Hawks into Gutterson Fieldhouse on Friday. / Courtesy UMass-Lowell

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When Norm Bazin took over the UMass-Lowell hockey program a year ago, Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon had a few words for him regarding Riley Wetmore.

“I had hired Riley to work our hockey camp, so I really got to know him through watching him with the kids, watching him interact with our players,” Sneddon of the former Missisquoi Valley and Green Mountain Glades player.

“I said to Norm when he got the job, ‘You’ve got a really, really good player and an even better person in Riley Wetmore to build the things you want to build at Lowell’,” said Sneddon. “I remember, maybe this fall, Norm said, ‘You were right’.”

Bazin said other coaches offered similar perspectives of Wetmore, the two-year Lowell captain and a senior forward who will lead the River Hawks into a two-game Hockey East series against the Catamounts at Gutterson Fieldhouse tonight and Saturday.

“The one common theme is he is such a good kid and such a competitor,” Bazin said. “He’s been an integral part of our offense and as captain he’s grown into the position.”

“He’s become an excellent player in Hockey East. He’s got a great skill set. He understands the game and he’s competitive,” Sneddon said of Wetmore. “From what I can gather, he’s very well liked by his teammates and that’s probably the ultimate compliment that I can give him.”

Born in New Hampshire, Wetmore moved to Fairfax in second grade and to Swanton in sixth grade. He played hockey at Missisquoi as a freshman and sophomore, joining the Glades for the next four years before attending Lowell.

“In the end, it came down to visiting the school. I liked the school and a couple of their players, Barry Goers and Paul Worthington, were captains with the Glades,” Wetmore said.

He led UML’s freshman class in scoring with six goals and 15 points, playing in all 39 games. The games-played streak extends to tonight’s game: He has suited up for 128 consecutive River Hawks games.

As a sophomore, he served as an assistant captain, closely watching how two of his roommates, captain Scott Campbell and assistant captain Maury Edwards, handled their duties.

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“I could see they wanted to play pro hockey and their work ethic on and off the ice and in the classroom,” said Wetmore, who led the team in goals with 14 and was second in assists (16) and points (30) that season.

Wetmore racked up a career high of 39 points as a junior, including 14 goals, and assumed the leadership mantle as captain, a role he has retained this year.

“For me, it’s a tremendous responsibility,” he said. “I try to keep everyone together and stay out of trouble. I try to help (teammates) manage school and hockey and make sure they know we’re student-athletes, that we’re not here just to play hockey.”

As a player, the 6-foot, 195-pound Wetmore said, “I go to the net. I go down low to use my size and move the puck. I work the corners. I try to outwork everyone.”

This season, Wetmore leads the River Hawks in goals scored with seven. He’s fifth in scoring with nine points as Lowell, 9-7-1 overall but 3-6-1 in Hockey East, storms into The Gut on a five-game win streak. Wetmore had two goals in the most recent victory, a 6-2 rout of the Golden Knights at Clarkson.

A marketing and management major, Wetmore hopes to play professionally after graduation. Long-term, he said he might return to the family business, Hillcrest Foods, a bakery, dairy, specialty and bulk food service products supplier.

Before then, Wetmore will try to lead Lowell to another strong finish. Last year, the River Hawks won 24 games and played until losing 4-2 to Union in the NCAA East Regional final.

More immediate are the games at The Gut this weekend. During Wetmore’s time in a Lowell uniform, the River Hawks are 4-2-4 versus UVM, including a season-opening 1-1 tie in Lowell this year. However, Lowell is 0-2-2 at Gutterson and, barring an unlikely Hockey East postseason series at The Gut, this series figures to be Wetmore’s final college games in the venerable Quonset hut.

“I played there all the time and it’s always a treat to play on the big ice,” said Wetmore, who has three goals and eight points in 10 games against Vermont. “When I was with the Glades for four years, whenever UVM was out of town, we played there but we’d only have 50 people, all parents, never 4,000.

“The year before I came here, I remember just going to the games, watching UVM. I always liked the atmosphere, the wood ceilings, especially when the students were there,” he said.

With Vermont (6-9-4; 3-6-4 Hockey East) sitting just above Lowell in the league standings, winning the season’s series is a critical tiebreaker in terms of home ice — both teams are long-shot candidates at the moment — and seeding.

“Vermont’s ahead of us in terms of the standings and all the rest of the way is conference games. We’ve just got to keep playing our style,” Wetmore said.